Today at Council, The Pepsi Foundation made a generous $50,000 donation to the City of Mississauga’s Jerry Love Children’s Fund. This is the largest donation the Jerry Love Fund has received to date.

The donation will help more than 300 children participate in fee based recreation programs. The boost will also give children six to 12 years 11,000 visits in the new Let’s Play in the Park summer drop-in pilot program and enjoy a healthy, active and memorable recreation experience. The $40,000 donation is an increase of $5,000 from previous years’ donations in addition to a onetime donation of $10,000 bringing the total to $50,000. Total support from the Pepsi Foundation now totals $170,000 since 2008.

“The City of Mississauga is grateful to the Pepsi Foundation for its corporate leadership in promoting health and physical activity through their donation,” said Community Services Commissioner Paul Mitcham. “Now more children will be able to participate in activities such as swimming and skating as well as supervised play in 12 City parks over the summer and be encouraged to pursue life-long healthy and physically active lifestyles.”

“With our home base here in Mississauga, our decision to support the Jerry Love Children’s Fund was a natural one,” said Pepsi Foundation President Denis Sacks. “Knowing that our dollars are putting Mississauga children on a path to life-long healthy living is very rewarding for the foundation and all those who help us raise funds.”

The Pepsi Foundation is a registered charity dedicated to supporting youth to lead healthy, active lifestyles. Its donation is the most recent corporate contribution to the Jerry Love Children’s Fund which, since 1985, has provided assistance to more than 14,553 children through fundraising and donations totalling approximately $1.3 million. The fund placed 484 youth in programs in 2013.

In addition to the Jerry Love Children’s Fund, the City provides “ActiveAssist” – a fee assistance program designed to help Mississauga residents in low-income households. The ActiveAssist program supports 8,500 residents annually.

“I encourage other corporate sponsors to follow the example of The Pepsi Foundation and help make active, healthy living programs available to more children and youth in Mississauga,” added Jerry Love, former director of Mississauga Recreation and Parks. “Through the generous support of City staff and volunteers, every dollar collected goes toward the goal of making recreation accessible in our community.”

As Canada's sixth largest city, Mississauga is home to 741,000 residents and more than 54,000 businesses, including more than 60 Fortune 500 companies with Canadian head offices or major divisional head offices. A diverse, progressive and award-winning municipality located on the shores of Lake Ontario in the heart of the Greater Toronto Area, Mississauga is "Leading Today for Tomorrow" by focusing on delivering services, implementing its Strategic Plan, delivering value for money and maintaining infrastructure.